Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 493

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"tributed over the area of the family and even of the whole caste. "In every caste, not excluding Brahmans, cases of great poverty "exist. But as the caste descends in the social scale, the ins- 'tances of poverty increase, and the well-to-do are less able to render aid to the poorer members of their class. The best remedy is perhaps to relax the rule which requires that edu- cation, even in schools which are not entirely supported but, 'only aided by the State, should not be purely gratuitous. We "therefore recommend that in all board-schools, a certain propor- "tion of pupils be admissible as free students on the ground of poverty ; "and in the case of special schools established for the benefit of the ‘poorer classes, a general or larger exemption from payment of fees be "allowed under proper authority for special reasons.

There may be

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schools which specially undertake the education of the poor, and "which, under the operation of the above rule, will be unable to "charge fees, and must thus depend upon charitable assistance and "grants from the State. The grants which they may earn under "the result system will be very small, and their case seems to deserve "special encouragement. We therefore recommend that assistance be 'given to schools and orphanages in which poor children are taught

reading, writing, and counting, with or without manual work.”

PART VI.

MISCELLANEOUS RECOMMENDATIONS.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

93. There should be no attempt to provide any sort of University Education, until a far firmer grounding for it can be found than now exists in the schools of Hongkong.

Generally speaking, the Committee view with disfavour the idea of selecting one or two promising students, and giving them a free Professional or University Education in England, as has been done in past years.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

of

94. There is a very general idea that the main desideratum of Education in Hongkong is a Normal School. While it is fully recognized that the qualifications of the present teachers leave much to be desired, financial difficulties in the way such a school appear very great, and no practical scheme has yet been suggested. As far as the Chinese teachers of English are concerned, the system recommended in sections 39, 44, and 49, ensures that they shall teach under the control of an English master; and it is hard to see what more they could gain from a Normal School. At the same time it is recognized that Chinese masters should be encouraged to keep up and extend their knowledge of English, as otherwise the teaching in the Junior Classes especially will be apt to deteriorate. This tendency should be met by making promotion in the Teaching Staff of the Government Schools, and the maximum Grant in Grant Schools, depend upon the masters passing regular qualifying examinations.

95. It is still less easy to see how the Normal School proposed would effect any radical improvement in the masters of the Vernacular Schools. If Chinese who have spent a number of years in Anglo-Chinese Schools are still not competent to teach English or Western Knowledge without European supervision, the present teachers of Chinese in Vernacular Schools would be even less qualified to teach Western Knowledge or their Written Language in a practical way, notwith- standing that they had spent one or two years in a Normal School. But it is certain that after such a course of study they would demand an increase in their

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